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October 16, 2004
Take a Hefty Dose of Perspective
Note: this is a post recovered from my old blog, before it died of an insufficient backup. Any comments/trackbacks on it have not been brought over, but can be seen with the original. The date is that of the original posting.
\"\;This just infuriates me. Now some Wiccans are going the way of some Christians, and decrying Halloween celebrations and decorations because of their religion. Fantastic! Great! Lovely!
Look, I can understand: if you don't have a healthy and balanced view of yourself or your religion, any kind of stereotypical depiction is going to drive you nuts. But the answer to that is to develop a healthy and balanced view of yourself and your religion, not to get up in arms over someone else's celebration.
People are not going to suddenly start having huge bonfires, roasting pigs, and dancing to the glory of the Old Ones just because some school - or even all schools - stops putting up plastic hook-nosed hags. This isn't the Burning Times, and we need to not act as if it is. If we do, what will we say to anyone when the real Witch burners - and yes, there still are some who would happily burn Witches - come for us?
It's part of the culture of outrage. Rather than majority rule we have “rule by the outraged”—whoever is the most outraged gets their way. Now that's a formula for civility.
Posted by: Dave Schuler on October 22, 2004 05:35 PMCulture of outrage is getting closer and closer to mob rule. We have abandoned our Republican roots in the name of Democracy and it's having a bad impact.
Posted by: Mark L on October 22, 2004 06:34 PM